In a world with an intellectual history of seven thousand years behind it, where do Pakistanis stand, what are they doing, what do they aspire to be, and what ought they to be doing? This Blog takes Notes of all of that ...

Monday, July 29, 2013

Enter the new age of slavery

Morality
and fundamental rights are the first principles which must take precedence over
everything, be it ideologies, religions, systems of government, on the one
hand, or elites, aristocracies, theocracies, bureaucracies, dictatorships and
democracies, on the other. That is the lesson that human civilization teaches
us, and without which a society based on co-existence cannot exist.

It
is the failure to learn this that explains the emergence, persistence and
spread of world terrorism nearly unprecedented in the history of violent
movements. Presently al-Qaeda, Taliban and the likes of them are its
manifestations. Certain characteristics single this terrorism out as the most
atrocious human activity on our earth.

This
terrorism has a clearly stated and demonstrated political agenda that
transcends frontiers and peoples. Not only does it envisage a theocratic world
government, it is hell-bent upon making it happen at any cost. It is using all
violent methods, those already in use and those never dreamt of, to achieve its
goal.

This
terrorism is not confined to a specific geographical area. Its members,
activists, partners, supporters, and sympathizers are scattered all over the
inhabited earth. In the past, they were usually concentrated in this or that
specific location. This time they exist almost everywhere.

This
terrorism enjoys wider backing of supporters and sympathizers all over the
world not only in the Muslim population but also among those who favor
targeting the centers of economic and technological powers they hate.

This
terrorism believes, both ideologically and strategically, that the ends
justifies the means. It has repudiated all values humans have come to hold as
most precious: Love for each other, regard for human life, freedom of
conscience, freedom of professing and practicing religion, the right to pursue happiness,
tolerance - all sacrificed at the altar of its war.

This
terrorism has unleashed a war which knows no rules. How impressive of us that
if war could not be ruled out completely, at least we made some humane rules to
be followed by warring parties, such as not targeting civilians. But this
terrorism kills everyone including children and women. It even uses them as its
blasting instruments.

Last
but not least, this terrorism is the friend of none, and the enemy of all. In
the past, such movements tried to win supporters. It has no such concern of
earning friends, maybe because it has its supporters already on its side or it
believes it is the only right path. Its theocratic agenda is narrow but it has
no organized clerical authority to bring uniformity to differences tearing at
its own ranks. That is why frequent internal fighting is common. It may indeed
be destined, due to differences of opinion or practice, to come down hard on
its own supporters and sympathizers in its puritanical countdown. This is its
internal dialectic.

This
makes this terrorism callously ideological, mercilessly inhuman, and
dangerously destructive. And all that in the name of faith! It poses a unique
threat to human civilization. It threatens to enslave free humanity once again.
Forget the age of physical slavery, or economic enslavement by ruling cliques.
With this terrorism raging from Pakistan
and Afghanistan
to Iraq,
Somalia
and Yemen,
enters the specter of a new age of theocratic slavery. A new slavery of the
human conscience is on the top of this terrorism’s agenda.

It
was money which freed men from physical slavery by enabling them to meet their
needs independently of their masters, but it was the physical person whom money
freed; his mind and soul were already free. This terrorism attempts to enslave
one’s mind and soul. It is intent upon seizing political power which controls
the freeing power of money also, and thus invests immense power in the hands of
political masters, to enslave bodies as well as minds and souls.

Those
who back this terrorism think it will enslave only others, by forcing them to
embrace its truth, but they are mistaken. By its very nature, this terrorism is
nihilist, directed towards excluding everyone and everything different from it.
Thus, it is destined to annihilate its own self in the end. This terrorism like
a black hole will gulp everything to nothingness. It is already killing and
destroying indiscriminately.

The
apologists of this terrorism blame the US and NATO presence in Afghanistan as
the cause of its destructive aggression. In Pakistan this terrorism targets
anyone and anything ever said to have any relation with the US or NATO.
Also, it is this terrorism which wreaked 9/11. 9/11 did not beget it. Finally,
is it US presence in Somalia and Yemen that justifies this terrorism’s playing
havoc there?

We
must face what this terrorism really means, if we are to do justice to it and
to ourselves also. Only then, will humanity be able to fight the new slavery of
mind and soul for which this terrorism is prepared to bomb the whole world to
ashes!

The Blogger

The blogger cherishes a cosmopolitan spirit; he is a moralist; a rationalist; a philosopher; a political philosopher; he believes in Classical Liberalism, as a Theory of Conduct.
He has substantially contributed to the founding of the first free market think tank of Pakistan, Alternate Solutions Institute.
He is a writer who wrote / published dozens of articles on a variety of issues, and is author of 4 books.
He wrote / published short-stories in Punjabi, a regional language of Pakistan.
He composes poetry both in Urdu and Punjabi, and has already published one collection.